stats on the Vietnam war

>>> This is a great paper on the statistics regarding the Vietnam War.
>>> When you get a chance, read through it. I think you'll find it
>>> educational and interesting.
>>>
>>>
>>> December 13, 2005
>>>
>>> Nick Bacon
>>> USA 1SGT (RET.)
>>> Medal of Honor Recipient
>>>
>>> After my retirement in 1984 from the U.S. Army, I worked for the VA
>>> Regional Office in Phoenix, AZ as a contact representative and as an
>>> adjudicator of claims. After a short period with VARO, I resigned and
>>> helped John McCain in his race for the U.S. Senate. Of course, John won
>>> and I went on to become a City Manager in Surprise, AZ for 3 years.
>>>
>>> When I moved to Arkansas in 1990, I returned to assisting veterans
>>> with their claims. In 1993 I was appointed to the position of State
>>> Director of Veterans Affairs where I spent the next 12 years helping
>>> veterans and their families.
>>>
>>> I was always surprised at the number of people claiming to have been
>>> Military Veterans, especially Vietnam Veterans. After opening the
>>> Arkansas State Veteran Cemetery several years ago, I was shocked to see
>>> so many of my VN brothers being buried. Then I received the following
>>> fact sheet from my good friend Major General (Ret.) David R. Bockel,
>>> Director of Army Affairs, Reserve Officers Association.
>>>
>>> After the shock wears off, please send this information to all your
>>> address banks and local media. After so many years of misleading reports
>>> and unpleasant media comments; lets disseminate to this country the real
>>> truth, as painful as it may be.
>>>
>>> My son, my younger brother, my nephews are still serving in harms way
>>> in the war on terrorism. Let's not let them be treated like we were so
>>> many years ago - Fight Now, Fight Strong and Fight as long as we have
>>> to.
>>>
>>> God Bless America and God Bless Our Veterans
>>>
>>> Nick Bacon
>>>
>>> * * * * * *
>>>
>>> Subject: Vietnam Facts vs Fiction
>>>
>>> For over 30 years I....like many Vietnam veterans....seldom spoke of
>>> Vietnam, except with other veterans, when training soldiers, and in
>>> public speeches. These past five years I have joined the hundreds of
>>> thousands who believe it is high time the truth be told about the
>>> Vietnam War and the people who served there. It's time the American
>>> people learn that the United States military did not lose the War, and
>>> that a surprisingly high number of people who claim to have served
>>> there, in fact, DID NOT.
>>>
>>> As Americans, support the men and women involved in the War on
>>> Terrorism, the mainstream media are once again working tirelessly to
>>> undermine their efforts and force a psychological loss or stalemate for
>>> the United States. We cannot stand by and let the media do to today's
>>> warriors what they did to us 35 years a go.
>>>
>>> Below are some assembled some facts most readers will find
>>> interesting. It isn't a long read, but it will....I guarantee....teach
>>> you some things you did not know about the Vietnam War and those who
>>> served, fought, or died there. Please share it with those with whom you
>>> communicate.
>>>
>>> Vietnam War Facts:
>>> Facts, Statistics, Fake Warrior Numbers, and Myths Dispelled
>>>
>>> 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official
>>> Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
>>> 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam
>>> Vietnam Veterans represented 9.7% of their generation.
>>> 240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War
>>> The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1958. He was with
>>> the 509th Radio Research Station. Davis Station in Saigon was named for
>>> him.
>>> 58,148 were killed in Vietnam
>>> 75,000 were severely disabled
>>> 23,214 were 100% disabled
>>> 5,283 lost limbs
>>> 1,081 sustained multiple amputations
>>> Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21
>>> 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old
>>> Of those killed, 17,539 were married
>>> Average age of men killed: 23.1 years
>>> Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.
>>> The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
>>> As of January 15, 2 004, there are 1,875 Americans still unaccounted
>>> for from the Vietnam War
>>> 97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged
>>> 91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served
>>> 74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome
>>> Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet
>>> age groups.
>>> Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age
>>> group by more than 18 percent.
>>> 87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem.
>>> There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and
>>> non-Vietnam Veterans of the same age group (Source: Veterans
>>> Administration Study)
>>> Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one-half of
>>> one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes.
>>> 85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life.
>>> Interesting Census Stats and "Been There" Wanabees:
>>> 1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of
>>> August, 1995 (census figures).
>>> ~ During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely
>>> claiming to have served in-country was: 9,492,958.
>>> ~ As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving
>>> U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard to
>>> believe, losing nearly 711,000 between '95 and '00. That's 390 per day.
>>> During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to
>>> have served in-country is: 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE
>>> WHO CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not.
>>>
>>> The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially
>>> provided by The War Library originally reported with errors that
>>> 2,709,918 U.S. military personnel as having served in-country.
>>> Corrections and confirmations to this errored index resulted in the
>>> addition of 358 U.S. military personnel confirmed to have served in
>>> Vietnam but not originally listed by the Department of Defense. (All
>>> names are currently on file and accessible 24/7/365).
>>>
>>> Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced torrents
>>> of outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while Communist
>>> atrocities were so common that they received hardly any media mention at
>>> all. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on
>>> civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of
>>> its strategy. Americans who deliberately killed civilians received
>>> prison sentences while Communists who did so received commendations.
>>> From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725
>>> Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. The death squads focused on
>>> leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the
>>> peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and school
>>> teachers. - Nixon Presidential Papers
>>>
>>> Common Myths Dispelled:
>>>
>>> Myth: Common Belief is that most Vietnam veterans were drafted.
>>> Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the
>>> men who served in World War II were drafted. Approximately 70% of those
>>> killed in Vietnam were volunteers.
>>>
>>> Myth: The media have reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans
>>> range from 50,000 to 100,000 - 6 to 11 times the non-Vietnam veteran
>>> population.
>>> Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. "The CDC
>>> Vietnam Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the
>>> first 5 years after discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more
>>> likely among Vietnam veterans than non-Vietnam veterans. After that
>>> initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die
>>> from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. In fact, after the 5-year
>>> post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam
>>> veterans' group.
>>>
>>> Myth: Common belief is that a disproportionate number of blacks were
>>> killed in the Vietnam War.
>>> Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were
>>> black, 1.2% were other races. Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John
>>> Sibley Butler, in their recently published book "All That We Can Be,"
>>> said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder
>>> during Vietnam "and can report definitely that this charge is untrue.
>>> Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in
>>> Southeast Asia a figure proportional to the number of blacks in the
>>> U.S. population at the time and slightly lower than the proportion of
>>> blacks in the Army at the close of the war."
>>>
>>> Myth: Common belief is that the war was fought largely by the poor and
>>> uneducated.
>>> Fact: Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a
>>> slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be
>>> pilots or infantry officers. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated
>>> forces our nation had ever sent into combat. 79% had a high school
>>> education or better.
>>>
>>>
>>> Here are statistics from the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF) as of
>>> November 1993. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
>>> (The Wall): Average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years.
>>> (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have
>>> both event date and birth date. Event date is used instead of declared
>>> dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action)
>>>
>>> Deaths Average Age
>>> Total: 58,148 23.11 years
>>> Enlisted: 50,274 22.37 years
>>> Officers: 6,598 28.43 years
>>> Warrants: 1,276 24.73 years
>>> E1 525 20.34 years
>>> 11B MOS: 18,465 22.55 years
>>>
>>> Myth: The common belief is the average age of an infantryman fighting
>>> in Vietnam was 19.
>>> Fact:: Assuming KIAs accurately represented age groups serving in
>>> Vietnam, the average age of an infantryman (MOS 11B) serving in Vietnam
>>> to be 19 years old is a myth, it is actually 22. None of the enlisted
>>> grades have an average age of less than 20. The average man who fought
>>> in World War II was 26 years of age.
>>>
>>> Myth: The Common belief is that the domino theory was proved false.
>>> Fact: The domino theory was accurate. The ASEAN (Association of
>>> Southeast Asian Nations) countries, Philippines,Indonesia, Malaysia,
>>> Singapore and Thailand stayed free of Communism because of the U.S.
>>> commitment toVietnam. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966
>>> because of America's commitment in Vietnam. Without that commitment,
>>> Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is
>>> south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world.
>>> If you ask people who live in these countries that won the war
>>> inVietnam, they have a different opinion from the American news media.
>>> The Vietnam War was the turning point for Communism.
>>>
>>> Myth: The common belief is that the fighting in Vietnam was not as
>>> intense as in World War II.
>>> Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II
>>> saw about 40 days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in
>>> Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility
>>> of the helicopter. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam
>>> was a casualty. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7
>>> million who served. Although the percent that died is similar to other
>>> wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in
>>> World War II ....75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. MEDEVAC
>>> helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. Over 900,000 patients were
>>> airlifted (nearly half were American). The average time lapse between
>>> wounding to hospitalization was less than one hour. As a result, less
>>> than one percent of all Americans wounded, who survived the first 24
>>> hours, died. The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. Without the
>>> helicopter it would have taken three times as many troops to secure the!
>> 800 mile border with Cambodia and Laos (the politicians thought the
>> Geneva Conventions of 1954 and the Geneva Accords or 1962 would secure
>> the border).
>>>
>>> Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked
>>> from the napalm strike near Trang Bang on 8 June 1972.....shown a
>>> million times on American television....was burned by Americans bombing
>>> Trang Bang.
>>> Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang
>>> that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. The planes doing the bombing near the
>>> village were VNAF (Vietnam Air Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese
>>> pilots in support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. The
>>> Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in
>>> the United States. Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the
>>> picture, was Vietnamese. The incident in the photo took place on the
>>> second day of a three day battle between the North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
>>> who occupied the village of Trang Bang and the ARVN (Army of the
>>> Republic of Vietnam) who were trying to force the NVA out of the
>>> village. Recent reports in the news media that an American commander
>>> ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are incorrect. There were no
>>> Americans involved in any capacity. "We (Americans) had nothing to do
>>> with controlling VNAF," according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F.
>>> Hollingsworth, the!
>> Commanding General of TRAC at that time. Also, it has been incorrectly
>> reported that two of Kim Phuc's brothers were killed in this incident.
>> They were Kim's cousins not her brothers.
>>>
>>> Myth: The United States lost the war in Vietnam.
>>> Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American
>>> military did not lose a battle of any consequence. >From a military
>>> standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. General
>>> Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the University of
>>> California, Berkley a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.
>>>
>>> THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH
>>> VIETNAMESE DID. Read on........
>>>
>>> The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the
>>> American military left Vietnam. The last American troops departed in
>>> their entirety 29 March 1973.
>>>
>>> How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? We fought to
>>> an agreed stalemate. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27
>>> January 1973. It called for release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawal of
>>> U.S. forces, limitation of both sides' forces inside South Vietnam and a
>>> commitment to peaceful reunification. The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975
>>> during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and
>>> Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives.
>>> There were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia
>>> (primarilyCambodia) the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975
>>> then there were during the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam.
>>> Thanks for the perceived loss and the countless assassinations and
>>> torture visited upon Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to
>>> the American media and their undying support-by-misrepresentation of the
>>> anti-War movement in the United States.
>>>
>>> As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and
>>> misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. It was reported as an
>>> overwhelming success for the Communist forces and a decided defeat for
>>> the U.S. forces. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite
>>> initial victories by the Communists forces, the Tet Offensive resulted
>>> in a major defeat of those forces. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer
>>> of the Tet Offensive, is considered by some as ranking with Wellington,
>>> Grant, Lee and MacArthur as a great commander. Still, militarily, the
>>> Tet Offensive was a total defeat of the Communist forces on all fronts.
>>> It resulted in the death of some 45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if
>>> not total destruction of the Viet Cong elements in South Vietnam. The
>>> Organization of the Viet Cong Units in the South never recovered. The
>>> Tet Offensive succeeded on only one front and that was the News front
>>> and the political arena. This was another example in the Vietnam War of
>>> an inaccurac!
>> y becoming the perceived truth. However, inaccurately reported, the News
>> Media made the Tet Offensive famous.
>>>
>>> Please give all credit and research to:
>>> Capt. Marshal Hanson, U.S.N.R (Ret.)
>>>
>>> Capt. Scott Beaton, Statistical Source

"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."

Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups.
Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age
group by more than 18 percent.

Click to expand...

The anti-military press paints the picture of the Vietnam vet. For every homeless drug addict, there are 10 that are CEOs of corporations, doctors, and stock brokers.

Something that really tells their character, if character can be a collective trait, during Desert Storm/Shield, many Vietnam vets called or showed up at the recruiter, ready to train the troops or serve again.